How to Deal with Debt Collectors

Whether you are a small business owner or full-time employee, debt collectors can strike you at a moment’s notice.

Have you recently reviewed your credit report and noticed a negative item randomly appeared? This is the first action a debt collector will take if you are in their line of sights.

This negative item is appearing as a ‘collection,’ which means you owe them money. To make matters worse, a collections account can remain on your credit report for up to 7 years. This will hurt your credit score, making it difficult to qualify for a loan or apply for a credit card.

Unfortunately, the horror stories about debt collectors spamming your phone, mailing you letters, and acting in a heavy-handed way are true.

However, there are legitimate steps you can take to deal with debt collectors (the right way), put an end to their annoying tactics, and remove a collection from your credit report.

Here are three actionable tips to help you deal with debt collectors.

1. Know Your Rights

As a consumer, you have rights. According to the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA), debt collectors are bound to a strict set of regulations that they must abide by when communicating with consumers.

Here is what a debt collector cannot do:

• Call you outside of working hours (before 8 AM or after 9 PM)
• Make false claims about the debt you owe
• Use profane language
• Call you after you explicitly tell them to stop! This means they can only write you letters.
• Contact your employer or third-parties

Debt collectors hate when consumers know their rights. It severely restricts and limits their debt collection efforts. So, the best thing you can do when dealing with debt collectors is to know your rights.

2. Don’t Give Them Personal Information

The last thing you want to do is give a debt collection agency personal identifiable information (PII). If you do, it will fuel their debt collecting efforts, because they will now have more opportunities to contact you.

Some standard personal information that you need to protect at all costs is:

• Date of Birth
• Phone Number
• Social Security Number
• Bank Account Information
• Mailing Address

Of course, more data points can be classified as PII, but these are the most important to protect.

Again, when a debt collector calls you, you do not need to answer any questions they ask. Instead, notify them that you know your rights and that all future communication needs to be done through the mail.

This will cease most of their efforts immediately because they will now have to scour databases to find your mailing address, which is challenging to do.

3. Validate the Debt

If a debt collector calls you, such as Portfolio Recovery or 11 Charter Communications (two of the largest and most aggressive collection agencies), you should immediately request debt validation.

Requesting debt validation is a simple process; however, it is time-sensitive. As a consumer, you can only request debt validation within 30 days of initial contact.

If the debt collector cannot verify your debt, then they must contact all three credit bureaus to remove the negative item from your credit report and cease all debt collecting efforts.

With one in five consumers having a credit reporting error, it is important to validate the debt. Debt collection agencies are notorious for reporting the wrong information. This may very well be a mistake or misunderstanding.

Final Thoughts: How to Deal with Debt Collectors

Undeniably, dealing with a debt collector can be a stressful situation, but it does not have to be. Make sure to leverage your consumer rights, demand everything to be done through the mail, and to validate your debt.

These strategies will help you end the annoying phone calls and deal with debt collectors the right way.

The post How to Deal with Debt Collectors appeared first on Home Business Magazine.

source https://homebusinessmag.com/money/how-to-guides-money/how-to-deal-debt-collectors/